A new school year has begun...and some libraries are in need of books. If you can help, please do! This brand new site hooks up schools in need with potential donors. I think it's a
fabulous idea! Donors buy the books from Amazon, and the books are
shipped directly to the schools. It's easy, and just think of all the children whose lives will be enriched. I'm going to donate, and I hope you do too!

My first experience of using iTunes Producer wasn't just awful,
it was gawd-awful. I was scared half
to death to begin with, and what should have been a simple and easy process turned into
a nightmare. I'm sure my lack of techie-ness (is that a word?) had a lot to do
with my problems. But I learned a lot by plowing through the process, and all
the other books I uploaded to the iTunes iBook Store went very smoothly.
Because I'm sure I'm not the only tech-novice out there, I thought I would post
the steps I used in an attempt to turn your nightmare into a sweet dream.

I am going to assume a few things here. Firstly, that you own a
Mac computer (you need to use one in order to access iTunes Producer).
Secondly, that you have applied to iTunes for an account via iTune Connect Online Application.
Thirdly, that you have purchased an ISBN from Bowker (this company sells ISBNs
to US-based publishers…if you are uploading and selling your books, you're
considered a publisher). All of these things are necessary in order to upload
and sell your iBooks in the iTunes Store. Oh, and once you open an account to iTunes Connect, you'll have to sign in and download iTunes Producer.

Also before you begin uploading, make sure you have everything you’ll need at
hand. I store everything on the desktop, then I can drag it to where I need it:
ePub file, Cover, Blurb, ISBN.

1. Open iTunes Producer

2.Select
‘New Book’ - click ‘next’

3.Info
Page: Fill in all pertinent information, add blurb, don’t be afraid to leave some
spaces blank. Double check that you've filled in all info, then click ‘next’.

4.Categories
Page: Click the ‘add categories’ button. BISAC will show up in the box...use
that (there are a couple of other choices, but BISAC is what I used). Use the
pull down arrow in the bottom box to choose the category. Click ‘add category’
again and repeat. Add whichever categories fit you book. Make sure your
‘primary category’ check mark is next to the primary category. I added 3
categories to each of my books. Click ‘next’.

5.Author
Page: this one is easy. :)Click ‘add
author’, choose ‘author’ in the ‘role’ box, type in your name. If your book has
more than one author or an illustrator or an editor who needs recognition, add
them on this page. Click 'next'.

6.Target
Audience Page: Click ‘add criteria’. For most fiction authors: use the pull
down arrow in the first box and choose ‘Apple’, use the pull down arrow in the
next box and choose ‘General’. If you're uploading a text book or some other
type of book, choose the appropriate target audience from the available
choices. Click 'next'.

7.Related
Products Page: Use this page only if you have ‘related products’ (example:
paperback copy version of the same book).

8.Rights
and Pricing Page: This section will take a little doing, but you only have to
do it once. I had 2 computers going to do this...my Mac (working on iTunes
Producer) and my Dell (working with a money conversion site). I'm sure you
could do this with just your Mac…just have iTunes Producer open and a money
conversion site on the web using your browser. In iTunes Producer, click ‘add
territory’ and then choose a country. Then move down to Publication Type and
use the pull down menu to choose 'New Release'. Move down to 'Sales Start Date'
and type in the current date. I skipped the next box. In the 'Physical List
Price' box, add the price (this is where you’ll need to convert the chosen
country’s money to USD using a conversion website). Check ‘cleared for
sale’...check the DRM free box if you want to offer your books DRM free. When
you finish one country, click ‘add territory’ again and start all over...do
this for all 32 available countries. When you’re finished, click ‘make default’
and you won’t have to do this again. Click ‘next’.

9.Books
Page: This is where you drag your ePub file into the box marked ‘Publication’.
The first time I uploaded, I thought I needed to have preview, so I made an
ePub file of the first chapter of the book and dragged it into the box marked
‘Publication Preview’, but I left this box blank with the remaining books.
Click ‘cover art’.

11.Screenshots Page: I ignored the Screenshots
page. I think this is where you can allow potential readers the chance to actually
see some of the images inside your book. Click 'next'.

12.Now
you’re on the Delivery Page. If you are missing any information, you’ll see red
x’s and messages regarding what you've missed. Read over the error messages and
go back to add/fix the errors. If you see no red x’s, your book should
automatically begin to upload to the iTunes iBook Store. You will hear a
wonderful trilling sound and a big green check when your book has successfully
uploaded. And it will be available for sale almost instantly.

Congratulations! You’ve published your first book to the iTunes
Store!

This soup is tasty, nutritious, and filling! I make it all throughout the fall and winter. The thyme and sage fill the house with a delicious, mouth-watering aroma. Here's what you'll need to make this recipe:

1 lb. stew meat

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium yellow onion,
chopped

3 ribs celery, sliced thin

32 oz container of beef broth

3 medium potatoes, cut into 1-inch
squares

1 16 oz bag frozen stew vegetables (see note below)

1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes (or 3 fresh tomatoes, diced)

1 clove garlic, minced

1 cube Knorr Vegetable Bouillon

2 bay leaves

1/2 teaspoon ground thyme

1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage

salt and freshly ground
pepper, to taste

water to cover all
ingredients

Heat the olive oil in a large
pot and brown the stew meat on all sides, about 5 minutes stirring often. (As you can see, I swapped out
leftover steak for the stew meat.) Remove meat from pot and reserve. Do not
clean the brown bits from the bottom of the pot…that's flavor in there! Add the
chopped onions and celery to the oil and sauté for 3-5 minutes. Pour the beef
broth into the pot and bring to a simmer. Scrape all the bits from the bottom
of the pot. Yum! Add the meat back into the pot and cook, stirring occasionally,
for at least 45 minutes or until the meat is very tender. You may need to add
water, if the stock evaporates. Add the potatoes and simmer for approximately
15 minutes. Then add all the other ingredients: the frozen vegetables, the diced
tomatoes, bouillon cube, garlic, bay leaves, and spices. Cover ingredients with just enough water that the
vegetables are submerged. Simmer for another 15 minutes. Remove the bay leaves, adjust spices, and serve
with hot biscuits or crusty bread.

Also, with all of these recipes I've been providing, I've been thinking about compiling a cookbook. How you feel about that? Please leave me a comment here to let me know your thoughts. Thanks and have a great day!

I am guest posting over at Dying For Chocolate where I offer up a delicious chocolate dessert recipe: Nutty Chocolate Chip Caramel Squares. Hurry on over to Janet Rudolph's wonderful blog where she talks about all-things-chocolate!

For four days over the US Labor Day weekend, we are offering
our books for 99¢ to say a huge thank you to all the readers who’ve supported
us over the years. From this Friday, August 31st through Monday, September 3rd,
all of these books are 99¢ on Amazon.com. Click on the title/author line to go
straight to Amazon, where you can also spread the love to your friends through
Amazon’s ‘give as a gift’ button.

When Lauren divorces her husband, she has one thought on her
mind...stepping off the merry-go-round. However, her life quickly turns into a
three-ring circus: her hypochondriac father moves in, her ex is using her
shower when she’s not home, and her perky assistant is pushing her out into the
fearsome dating world. She also has to decide if the dilapidated barn and
vintage merry-go-round she was awarded in the divorce settlement is a blessing
or a bane. As if Lauren’s personal life isn’t chaotic enough, this slightly
jaded attorney is overrun with a cast of quirky characters who can’t stay on
the right side of the law. What’s a woman to do? She can allow life to spin her
in circles forever. Or she can reach out and grab the brass ring.

The headless body of a wealthy widow is discovered
decomposing in Chelling Forest.
Then a second victim is found. Detective Inspector Lorne Simpkins and her
partner, DS Pete Childs are assigned the case. Before they can discover the
identity of the killer they must make a connection between the two victims.

After a third murder, Lorne receives a grisly surprise.
Clearly, a vicious serial killer is on a rampage...and Lorne has become the
killer's fixation.

Lorne can't allow her failing marriage or her new boss--a
man with whom she shares a sensuous secret--keep her from focusing on her job.
She must catch the macabre murderer, or risk becoming the next victim.

When a deathbed promise to a friend leaves Wendy Darlin,
feisty Miami real estate broker for
billionaires, trapped on a super-yacht with Ponzi-king, Charlie Hook, she’s
forced to join him on a quest to recover his hidden treasure. Along for the
danger-filled adventure are an undercover SEC
Investigator, who kindles a spark in Wendy with his ‘Johnny Depp’ eyes and
Hook’s young female helicopter pilot who befriends Wendy as they sail the high
seas, one step ahead of modern day ruthless pirates.

An unexpected visitor from Mark's past brings him unwanted
attention from the authorities. Unable to decide who is friend and who is foe,
Mark becomes a fugitive from the law, but with thousands of lives at stake, he
is forced to put aside his fear of capture, and instead, seek help from his
pursuers. This is Book Three of the bestselling Mark Taylor Series.

When L.A.
entertainment lawyer Julie Burns becomes convinced that finding The One is
"just a numbers game," she sets out to increase her numbers by any
means necessary. From chance meetings and blind dates to dating services and
the wonderful world of the internet, Julie will try anything to meet her man.
And in the process, she discovers a secret or two about the single life:
Sometimes love sneaks up on you when you least expect it--and even the worst
first impressions can have surprising results.

In this novella by NYT
bestseller Heather Graham, Christina Hardy and Jed Braden (The Seance) head
down to Miami to help out when
there's a death in a friend's family. But the old family residence, in a little
known overgrown area of the beach , was filled with legends, especially that of
a "devil in the woods." Strange events begin to occur, and the group
is left to wonder if the stories they told around campfires on dark nights as
children might have some essence of truth. Is murder always committed by men,
or does a demon lurk in the mangroves and the water, and prey upon the unwary?

It was his pheromones that did it. With one sniff, sex
researcher Leigh Fromm recognizes that any offspring she might have with the
mysterious stranger would have a better-than-average chance of surviving any
number of impending pandemics.

But when Leigh finds out that the handsome “someone” at her
great aunt’s wake is Prince Roman Habsburg von Lorraine of Austria,
she suddenly doubts her instincts—not that she was intending to sleep with the
guy. The royal house of Habsburg was once completely inbred, insanity and
impotency among the highlights of their genetic pedigree. (The extreme “bulldog
underbite” that plagued them wasn’t called the Habsburg Jaw for nothing.)

It doesn’t matter that his family hasn’t sat on a throne
(other than the ones in their Toilette) since 1918, or that Austria
is now a parliamentary democracy. Their lives couldn’t be more different: Roman
is routinely mobbed by paparazzi in Europe. Leigh is
regularly mocked for having the social skills of a potted plant. Even if she
suddenly developed grace, charm and a pedigree that would withstand the
scrutiny of the press and his family, what exactly is she supposed to do with
this would-have-been king of Austria
who is in self-imposed exile in Denver, Colorado?

A terrifying novel of suspense based on the Rhine
parapsychology experiments at Duke University

After experiencing a precognitive dream that ends her
engagement and changes her life forever, a young psychology professor from
California decides to get a fresh
start by taking a job at Duke University
in North Carolina. She soon
becomes obsessed with the files from the world-famous Rhine
parapsychology lab experiments, which attempted to prove ESP
really exists.

Along with a handsome professor, she uncovers troubling
cases, including one about a house supposedly haunted by a poltergeist,
investigated by another research team in 1965. Unaware that the entire original
team ended up insane or dead, the two professors and two exceptionally gifted Duke
students move into the abandoned mansion to replicate the investigation, with
horrifying results.

Can the love of a lifetime be forever changed by one pink
line? Dina Silver's tender, absorbing novel, One Pink Line, is the warmhearted,
wry story of love, loss and family, as seen through the prism of one singular,
spirited young couple who find themselves in a predicament that changes the
course of their lives, and those closest to them.

Sydney Shephard, a sweet-tempered, strong-natured college
senior is young, in love with an exceptional man, and unexpectedly pregnant.
Faced with a child she never planned for, she is forced to relay this news to
her neurotic mother, relinquish her youth, and risk losing the love of her
life. Then there's Grace, a daughter, who believed she was a product of this
great love, grows to realize her existence is not what she assumed, and is left
with profound and puzzling questions about who she really is.

Spanning generations and every imaginable emotion, One Pink Line reveals how
two points of view can be dramatically at odds, and perhaps ultimately
reconciled.

Declan “Mac” MacManus, some-time PI turned full-time
Southampton cabbie, has had to endure much in his young life: the loss of
family and friends, grave bodily injuries at the hands of ruthless enemies, and
the knowledge that more than a few lives have been shattered by the decisions
fate has forced him to make. But nothing of what Mac has encountered—and
nothing of what he now knows about his own mysterious past—can compare to what
awaits him in the heart-pounding final installment of The Gin Palace Trilogy.
On a cold winter night, a troubled woman enters Mac’s cab and within moments
sets into motion a series of devastating events that will test the young
MacManus to his very soul. As he chases down leads, and his losses once again
begin to mount, Mac finds himself dangerously close to a line he swore he’d
never cross. And when one utterly unbearable loss threatens to transform him
into an avenging angel, it is an unlikely ally—a stranger stalking him like a
shadow—that may very well be the difference between Mac’s final act of
self-destruction or his ultimate salvation.

Slave to the rich and the rude, cosmetic surgery
receptionist Serenity Holland longs for the day she's a high-flying tabloid
reporter. When she meets Jeremy Ritchie -- the hang-dog man determined to be Britain's
Most Eligible Bachelor by making himself over from head to toe and everything
in between -- Serenity knows she's got a story no editor could resist.

With London's biggest tabloid on
board and her very own column tracking Jeremy's progress from dud to dude,
Serenity is determined to be a success. But when Jeremy's surgery goes
drastically wrong and she's ordered to cover all the car-crash goriness,
Serenity must decide how far she really will go for her dream job.

At twenty-two, practicing Wiccan Sophia Parsons is
scratching out a living waiting tables in her Rocky
Mountain hometown, a pariah after a
string of unsolved murders with only one thing in common: her.

Sophia can imagine lots of ways to improve her life, but
she'd settle for just getting rid of the buzzing noise in her head. When the spell
she casts goes wrong, the static turns into voices. Her personal demons get
company, and the newcomers are dangerous.

Take one twenty six year old American, add to a two thousand
year old city, add a big dose of culture clash and stir

To think Hannah ever believed that Americans differed from
Brits mainly in pronunciation, sophistication and dentistry. That’s been the
understatement of a lifetime. She lands upon England’s
gentle shores with no job, no friends and no idea how she’s supposed to build
the life she’s dreaming of. Armed with little more than her enthusiasm, she
charges headlong into London,
baffling the locals in her pursuit of a new life, new love and sense of herself.

“You are in Paris, the City of Love. You must not be so controlled. Here, have
another glass. I promise you, it will not hurt.”

When 29-year-old event planner Chloe Turner wakes up penniless and without a
passport in the Plaza Athénée Hotel in Paris, she only has a few fleeting
memories of Claude, the suave French man who convinced her to have that extra
glass of wine before taking all of her possessions and slipping out the door.
As the overly organized, go-to gal for her three drama queen younger sisters,
her anxiety-ridden father, and her needy clients, Chloe is normally prepared
for every disaster that comes her way. But with her wedding to her
straight-laced, lawyer fiancé back in DC only days away and a French con-man on
the loose with her engagement ring, this is one catastrophe she never could
have planned for.

As Chloe tries to figure out a way home, she runs into an even bigger
problem—the police are after her due to suspicious activity now tied to her
bank account. Chloe's only hope at retrieving her passport and clearing her
name lies in the hands of a rugged, undercover agent named Julien who has a few
secrets of his own. As Chloe follows this mysterious, and—although she doesn't
want to admit it—sexy French man on a wild chase through the sun-kissed
countryside of France, she discovers a magical world she never knew existed and
has to decide if the perfectly ordered life she’s built for herself back home
is really what she wants after all.

With the last of her money spent on a ball gown and arriving
in a borrowed carriage, Lady Christelle LeGene must charm her way into the royal
ball. A reckless plan is all that stands between her and poverty. Yet the life
of sexual opulence and cruel intrigues are more than she bargains for when the
notorious Duke tempts her with an indecent wager: seduce and ruin the
reputation of his honorable brother, and she will never have to go hungry
again. With debtors banging on her door, Christelle has no choice but to
accept. However, she did not account for the noble knight to outwit her at
every turn, stirring her body as well as her heart.

When a chance accident brings the lovely Lady Christelle
across his path, Nicolas’ structured life changes forever. Intrigued by the
alluring temptress, Nicolas finds it difficult to resist her gold-flecked eyes
that sear with erotic cravings. When he overhears the plot of seduction, he is
determined to teach the little minx a lesson. Against his will, his defenses
melt in a cat-and-mouse game. For the sake of his honor and reputation, can he
resist a passionate love made on a wager?

Edited by award-winning writer Bruce Bethke and featuring
stories from 12 outstanding American, British, and Irish authors, the new
"Weirder Homes & Gardens" edition is filled with all-new tales of
the fantastic, funny, and frightening things that can happen in that most
mundane of places: the home, and attached garden. Includes "No
Onions" by M. Bennardo, "The Growing" by Sylvia Hiven,
"Family Magic" by Michele Winkler, "Mission Accomplished"
by Peter Wood, "Helen Went Beep" by Erin Entrada Kelly, "The Prototype"
by Judith Field, "Colorful Caps" by JC Hemphill,
"Lifesource" by Barbara V. Evers, "The Centaur Bride" by
Eric J. Juneau, "Rooting for You" by Michael Heneghan,
"Security" by Chris Bailey Pearce, and "The Garden" by R.
L. Bowden.

Aine (pronounced "Aw-nee") believes herself to be
a regular teenager in 1930s Alabama,
but when a blue-eyed monster named Biblos attacks, she discovers that the
reclusive woman raising her isn't really her grandmother and that she's been
living inside a book for the past five years. With her blind brother, Spenser,
she flees the pages of the novel she's called home, one terrifying step ahead
of Biblos' black magic. Her only chance at survival lies in beating him to the
three objects that he desires more than life.

As she undertakes her strange and dangerous odyssey, Aine
must choose between a family she doesn't remember and her growing attraction to
a mysterious young man named Gilgamesh. Only through treacherous adventures
into The Time Machine, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, A Tale of Two Cities, and the
epic Indian saga The Ramayana will she learn her true heritage and restore the
balance of the worlds... if she can stay alive.